Smart card payment terminal

ABSTRACT

To resolve a problem of the cost of use of mobile payment terminals, it is planned that these payment terminals will be combined, that is, capable of getting connected both to a base station of a mobile telephony network and with a base station of a private telephony network. The transmission mode selection means provide for preference being given to transmission with the private telephony network because the price scale of these communications is lower.

[0001] An object of the present invention is a terminal for payment bychip cards that can be used chiefly by tradesmen, especially tradesmenwho have to travel frequently.

[0002] A standard chip-card payment terminal comprises a chip-cardreader linked with a keyboard, a display screen, a transmission means(normally a modem) and a microprocessor that manages the interconnectionbetween the different peripherals.

[0003] A payment operation with a terminal of this kind is carried outas follows. A bank type chip card belonging to a customer is insertedinto the slot of the reader of the terminal. During this session, thebearer of the chip card is asked to key in a secret identification PINcode on the keyboard of the terminal. This secret code is sent on to thechip card which ascertains that the keyed-in secret code corresponds toan expected secret code. Furthermore, other security operations may beundertaken. They may concern especially the authentication of the chipcard by the reader as well as the authentication of the reader by thechip card. These authentication operations enable each of the two unitsrespectively to verify that the unit with which they are linked is anauthentic unit and not a falsified one.

[0004] Once these preliminary operations have been performed, or priorto their performance, the payment terminal is used to key in a paymentmessage. This payment message comprises essentially an indication of anamount, an indication of the identity of the debiting party and anindication of the identity of a creditor. The indication of the amountis keyed in by the tradesman through the keyboard, preferably before theverification operation. Consequently, the operation of verifying theholder of the chip card is equivalent, at the same time, to consent topayment. The fact of keying in his secret code becomes, in itself, anact of consent to make payment. The identity of the debiting party istaken, especially during the preliminary verification operations, fromthe chip card. The indication of the debiting party may relate to aserial number of his chip card. This number is used by a financialinstitution to retrieve his bank account number. Or else, this identityis the bank account number itself, encrypted or non-encrypted, with orwithout matching consistency codes. The creditor tradesman's identity istaken normally from the payment terminal given to the tradesman by hisfinancial institution. With these three pieces of information, and ifthe secret code is correctly keyed in, the terminal prepares the paymentmessage. In practice, this message is a numerical sequence, at leaststored in a working memory of the terminal.

[0005] Once the payment message has been prepared, the terminal can sendit to a payment-message collection circuit of its financial institution.

[0006] This sending operation is done by a modem contained in theterminal. The sending operation may be done in real time or in deferredtime. It is done in real time when the amount of the transaction isabove a limit or when the type of chip card of the debiting partyinserted into the reader requires it or for any other reason, forexample when the number of transactions performed with the readerbecomes greater then a certain number. When the sending is done in realtime, the financial institution transmits a return message that takesaccount of the payment or refuses to take account of payment. Thistaking-into-account message is enciphered and stored in correspondencewith the payment message in a storage memory of the terminal. Formessage-sending operations in deferred time, generally done at night,all the payment messages collected during the day by a payment terminalare transmitted to the financial organization which executes them,without any possibility of rejection.

[0007] On the whole, payment by chip card provides great security to thecreditor. Such a creditor therefore naturally tends to prefer paymentsmade in this way to any other form of payment, possibly even payment incash because then there is no risk of his being robbed of the sums paidto him.

[0008] When a tradesman is traveling, it is provided that the modem willbe replaced by an instrument capable of getting linked up to thefinancial institution by means of a mobile telephony network. Theworking of a mobile terminal of this kind is then similar to that of thestandard chip-card payment terminal, except that the transmission isdone by a mobile telephony network.

[0009] The information exchanged in this case is exchanged in a datamode, or even by means of SMS (Short Message Service) transmissions.

[0010] However, this mode of transmission has one drawback. Indeed, Inaddition to the price of the mobile terminal itself, the cost of mobiletelephony communications is high. Even if the calls are short, they leadto a substantial increase in the tradesman's working expenses.

[0011] To resolve this problem of cost, such a tradesman will then haveto acquire not only his mobile terminal but also a fixed terminalconnected to the switched telephone network through which he can maketransactions when he is in his shop. In certain businesses, the cost ofthe terminal, whose technology changes frequently, is a hardlyacceptable burden, especially if two of them have to be purchased.Furthermore, for companies using the services of a traveling agent, thedouble machines increases with the number of their agents.

[0012] The invention resolves this problem of cost by providing for amobile terminal capable of choosing a mode of transmission from aselection of at least two possible mode of transmission. A firstpossible transmission mode is then a mode using a mobile telephonynetwork, the other mode being a transmission mode that uses the switchedtelephone network and is less costly. In a preferred version, to carryout the transmission by the switched telephony network, which is apublic network, the payment terminal will be associated with a privatebase station. In this case, the mobile terminal will be capable ofsending out radio transmissions to the public mobile telephony networkwhen it cannot send out radio transmissions to its private base station.In particular in this case, the mobile terminal will be a terminalcompliant with a DECT type standard and will be provided, in particular,with every improvement available to instruments of this type.

[0013] These improvements will comprise especially the automaticselection of a preferred transmission mode. This preferred mode couldnaturally be preferably the switched telephony mode for which the costof transmission is low. The automatic selection can be done in a usualway by systematic interrogation from the base to find out if the mobileterminal is in its radio environment. If it is, the mobile terminalreports its presence to the base and the same time switches over itsmode of use.

[0014] If need be, in modes of use known as the called Home Servicemodes, it may be planned that the mobile terminal will continue to usethe mobile telephony network but at preferential price scales forpayment message communications, these preferential price scales beingquite comparable to the low price scales of the switched telephonynetwork. In this case, the private base informs the mobile telephonynetwork and/or the switched telephony network that it has diverted thecalls sent to this mobile terminal to the switched telephony number orvice versa. Through this procedure, the instrument of the inventionprovides a dual service: it keeps the tradesman's private telephone lineavailable while granting him the expected reduction in price scales.

[0015] An object of the invention therefore is a chip-card paymentterminal comprising means to produce a payment message and means totransmit this payment message to a financial institution, characterizedin that the transmitting means comprise means to select one transmissionmode among several modes.

[0016] The invention will be understood more clearly from the followingdescription and from the appended figures. These figures are givenpurely by way of an indication and in no way restrict the scope of theinvention. Of these figures:

[0017]FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic view of the payment terminal of theinvention and its environment used to obtain the preferred use;

[0018]FIG. 2 is a flow chart of operations to be implemented in thepayment terminal so that it can host all the facilities offered.

[0019]FIG. 1 shows a chip-card payment terminal 1 according to theinvention. This terminal 1 comprises chiefly a pack 1 provided, in aclassic way, with a keyboard 2, a screen 3, a printer 4 connectedtogether by means of the bus 5 to a microprocessor 6, a program memory 7and a non-volatile data memory 8. A payment terminal of this kind,provided with radio sending/reception means 9, is known. These means 9are connected to a sender antenna 10 symbolizing terminal stages of thesending/reception circuits 9. A payment terminal 1 of this kind iscapable of issuing a payment message by means of a program 11 containedin the memory 7 and is capable of transmitting the payment messages bymeans of a transmission program 12 to the circuits of a financialinstitution 13. A radio transmission mode, especially in the context ofa GSM (or Global System for Mobile communications) type of application,implies the participation of public base stations 14 with which themobile terminal 1 may get linked up.

[0020] These base stations 14 are connected to a mobile telephonynetwork 15. In practice, the link between the base stations 14 and thenetwork 15 may use the lines of a switched telephony network 16. Thepublic base stations 14 are characterized by the fact that a numberknown as the IMSI (international mobile subscriber identification)number is taken from the memory 8 of the mobile terminals thatcommunicate with these public base stations, during the communicationsthat they convey, and by the fact that these IMSI numbers are comparedwith the IMSI numbers stored in a memory 17 of the circuits of thenetwork 15. This identification of IMSI subscription thus enables themanagement devices of the network 15 to carry communications from themobile terminal 1, and above all to invoice the cost to the subscriptionholder.

[0021] At the practical level, the IMSI number, rather than being storedin a memory 8 of the terminal 1, may be stored in a complementarysecurity circuit (not shown), in communication with the bus 5. In thecontext of chip-card payment mobile terminals 1, this subscriptionsecurity circuit cooperates or is directly combined with apayment-message-issuing security circuit. This payment-message-issuingsecurity circuit uses secret code zones 18 of the memory 8 foroperations of verification, payment message acknowledgement andauthentication.

[0022] In the prior art, a payment terminal of this kind works inexpected way. A chip card 19 of a debiting customer is inserted into areader 20 linked with the bus 5. The program 11 executed by themicroprocessor 6 causes the payment operations to run and, at the end,activates a session of the program 12 to enter into communication withthe circuits of the bank 13 by means of the base stations 14. Thepayment message is then processed, accepted or rejected as the case maybe, and the base station 14 transmits to the terminal 1 which, by meansof the printer 4, prints out a slip that represents the transaction andcan be given to the customer.

[0023] In the invention, a different procedure is used. In the terminal1, in the transmission channel, there is interposed a selection circuit22 used to select a transmission mode. As is shown schematically, thisselection circuit 22, at output of the sending/reception circuit 9, canimplement another transmission circuit 23 symbolically represented by anantenna instead of the circuit 10. The circuit 23 tends to make themobile terminal 1 link up with a private base station 24. A private basestation 24 generally works like a public base station 14 linked up witha mobile telephony network 15.

[0024] In order that the terminal 1 may work with the private basestation 24, during a preliminary association session (performed onlyonce in the lifetime of the terminal 1), the mobile telephone 1transmits its IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) number 25to the private base station 24. Clearly, this IMEI number characterizesthe mobile terminal 1 far more than its holder's IMSI subscription witha mobile telephony network 15. During this association session, themobile terminal 1 informs the private base station 24 that it is liableto be linked up with it. During this association session, the basestation accepts the terminal as one of its possible partners. Duringcommunications between the terminal 1 and the private base station 24,this association leads to the setting up of communications protocolscomprising operations of addressing, frequency designation, time-relatedsynchronization, assigning of transmission power and so on. The privatebase station 24 is furthermore linked by means of the switched telephonynetwork 16 with the services 13 of the financial institution to whichthe payment messages have to be conveyed. To this end, the private basestation 24 may comprise a modem. The private base station 24 is classicin this respect.

[0025] The essential feature of the invention therefore lies in thepresence of the means 22 for the selection of the transmission mode.However, the means 22 are herein shown schematically. Indeed, FIG. 2shows the preferred special characteristics of the issuing andtransmission of a message with the terminal 1. When the terminal 1 isbeing used and when a payment message has been prepared in according tothe program 1, a selection program 26, shown in FIG. 2, then includes afirst test 27 to find out if the connection between the terminal 1 andthe institution 13 is immediately necessary. This connection isimmediately necessary if the amount of the transaction is greater than alimit or if the payment card 19 requires a verification of eachoperation.

[0026] If this immediate connection is not necessary, the program 26launches a storage operation 28 and the payment message is stored at thelocation 29 of the memory 8 (or other memory). After this, orbeforehand, the program 26 prompts a printing 30 of the payment messageso that the debiting party can have a record of the amount that he haspaid (even if he does not know that the payment message has not yet beentransmitted to the bank). And operation 31 then takes place for sendingthe payment message in deferred time.

[0027] This operation of sending 31 in deferred time, or sending in realtime if an immediate connection is needed, leads to a second test 32during which the program 26 seeks to find out whether or not theterminal 1 is in enforced transmission mode. This enforced transmissionmode may be obtained for example by pressing a special key 33 of thekeyboard 2 or a combination of keys of the terminal. This enforced modemay also, of course, have been chosen beforehand in a menu for the useof the selection program 26, or even for the issuing of the paymentmessages 11. If an enforced mode has been imposed, this enforced modewill be used during a step 34 to send the payment message during a step35 and, as the case may be, during a step 35 and possibly print thepayment message in a step 36 if it has not already been printed in astep 30.

[0028] The enforced mode may be any mode whatsoever of the two modes:the transmission mode using the public mobile telephony network or themode using the base station 24 and the switched telephony network 16. Itis also possible to provide for an embodiment where the enforced modecan only be one of these modes, preferably the mode using the switchedtelephony network 16 with its lower transmission price scales. In thiscase, it could be impossible for this message to be transmitted if themobile terminal 1 is at too great a distance from the base station 24.In this case, the steps 35 and 36 will not occur and a correspondingfailure message will be displayed on the screen 3.

[0029] If the mode is not enforced, the program 26 again preferablyprovides for a test 37 during which a preferred mode of transmission maybe chosen. For example, the preferred transmission mode may be the modeusing the switched telephone network 16. Either this mode is available,and it is used during a step 38. The step 38, like the step 35 may befollowed by a step for printing out the payment message if it has notyet been printed. If the test shows that the preferred mode oftransmission is not available then, during a step 39, the other mode isused, or else one of the other modes if several other modes are planned.

[0030] The test 32 resulting from an enforced mode will result from theexecution of a program 40 stored in the program memory 7. The test 37will result from a program 41 for measuring the availability of thepreferred transmission mode. This measurement 41 may comprise periodicsending operations by the base station 24 addressed to the terminal 1and tending to refresh a piece of information 42 in this terminal, thispiece of information 42 being an indication of availability of the linkwith the base station 24. Or else, the program 41 will possibly includean attempt to set up a communications link with the base station 24 and,if this attempt does not succeed, at the end of a time lag, the othermode could be preferred. In the event of an indication of availabilitywith messages coming out of the base station 24, the program 41 mayprovide for a time lag for the cancellation of this information onavailability if it is not refreshed with sufficient frequency. Themessages exchanged to this end between the private base station 24 andthe terminal 1 are of the type exchanged between a mobile telephone anda private base station, especially a DECT type mobile telephone in whichthe communications are digital communications. At the practical level,the measurement means 41 will correspond to a radio detectability of thepresence of the terminal 1 in the environment of the private basestation 24. This may be achieved by any other means, especially byaction on a switch of the station 24, or even the depositing of theterminal 1 directly at the station 24.

[0031] When the call is not immediately necessary, the messages arestacked in the zone 29 of the memory 8. In this case, once the holder ofthe terminal 1 has come into the vicinity of the base station 24, he canprompt the sending operation 31 in deferred time by launching the test32 and the rest of the operation described. In this case, the basestation 24 may be linked with an auxiliary printer 43, unless theprinter 4 plays this role, to inform it that the payment messages haveeffectively been transmitted to the bank 13.

[0032] In a Home Service type use, physically, the transmission moderemains the same the price-scale consequences change. From thisviewpoint, the detection of the Home Service is, per se, another mode oftransmission of the payment message.

1- Chip-card payment terminal comprising means to produce a paymentmessage and means to transmit this payment message to a financialinstitution, characterized in that the transmitting means comprise meansto select one transmission mode among several modes. 2- Terminalaccording to claim 1, characterized in that the means of selectioncomprise means to measure the fact that the terminal is in the areacovered by a base station of a private telephony network. 3- Terminalaccording to claim 2, characterized in that the measuring means comprisea radio detection of the position of the terminal with respect to theposition of the private base station. 4- Terminal according to one ofthe claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the means of selection comprisemeans to enforce one mode of transmission among several modes. 5-Terminal according to one of the claims 1 to 4, characterized in thatthe means of selection comprise means for the preferred use of one ofthe transmission modes and for the use of the other mode in the event offailure. 5- Terminal according to one of the claims 1 to 4,characterized in that one mode of transmission is a mode of transmissionon a public mobile telephony network and the other mode is a mode withtransmission to a private mobile telephony network. 6- Terminalaccording to one of the claims 1 to 5, characterized in that itcomprises means to store several payment messages when it is in a givenmode of transmission and means to transmit the stored messages indeferred time. 7- Terminal according to claim 6, characterized in thatthe means of transmission in deferred time use a mode with transmissionto a private mobile telephony network. 8- Terminal according to one ofthe claims 1 to 7, characterized in that it comprises means to securethe payment message.